Yankees notebook: Juan Rivera gets one final shift: off team

Other players proved to be a better fit

10:47 PM,
Mar. 28, 2013

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As recently as Tuesday morning, Juan Rivera was a strong favorite to open the season as the Yankees' starting first baseman. By Thursday afternoon, he'd been released. One late trade and three free-agent signings left Rivera as an odd man out despite his .295 batting average this spring.

"It's the New York Yankees, so you never know," Rivera said.

When spring training opened, Rivera was competing for a bench job as a right-handed outfielder, but that now seems certain to go to Ben Francisco, who the Yankees signed in early March. Rivera shifted into a competition to replace the injured Mark ...